1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a message prioritization system and, more particularly, to a message prioritization system for changing the priority of messages in a recipient's mailbox.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Message processing systems have been in widespread use for many years. These systems, such as a voice messaging system, are commonly used as message sending, receiving and storing tools. In particular, voice messaging systems are commonly known as voice mail systems (VMS). In such systems, each user is assigned a mailbox wherein messages sent to the user are saved. The recipient of a message, upon accessing the VMS, may retrieve messages from his or her mailbox. In the past, voice mail systems had limited capabilities. For example, users of the earliest systems could only send messages and store messages for later playback.
As technology progressed, advanced functionality was added to the VMS. In particular, present day systems not only store messages, but can forward messages to one or more recipients; message replies can be automatically sent to the sender; and messages can be attached to other messages before being sent to their final destination. Even in present-day systems, however, messages once received by the recipient are stored chronologically, i.e., in the order received, in the recipient's mailbox. Similarly, the recipient retrieves the messages in the order in which they were received.
In addition, certain voice mail systems are known to have the ability to assign handling codes to messages. Typically, the handling codes enable a message to be sent to the recipient carrying a special "tag" to indicate to the system that the message requires special handling. For example, it is known that messages, before being sent, may be tagged "private" to prevent the recipient from forwarding the message to others. A message may also be tagged "priority," which causes the message to jump to the first position in the mailbox, ahead of all the other messages in the recipient's mailbox. This enables urgent messages to be read first. Other various tags may also be available depending on the particular manufacturer of the VMS and the implemented features.
However, no known system is available wherein messages may be accessed by the sender after the messages have been sent and stored in the recipient's mailbox. Generally, once the sender has sent a message, the disposition of the message is out of the sender's control. Certain voice mail systems are known to allow the sender to delete unread messages from the recipient's mailbox, but only while a message is being sent, and before the sender terminates the connection or explicitly commands the VMS 90 to send the message.
There are certain situations when the sender may need to change a previously sent message. In particular, the sender may have provided background information regarding a particular issue in a message, but several facts may have changed subsequently. In such an instance, the sender may send a subsequent message with updated facts, but may want to maintain the original message so as to not repeat previously sent information.
Unfortunately, during the course of a business day, the priority of certain issues may often change, thereby requiring subsequent messages to be sent to notify the recipient of the changed priorities. As such, excess messages may fill up the recipient's mailbox preventing other sent messages which perhaps change the priority of earlier messages from being stored. This can cause the recipient to possibly send out errant replies based on outdated messages. Because a sender does not have access to the contents of a recipient's mailbox, the sender cannot reorder the messages into a understandable desired order. Therefore, the sender is compelled to send subsequent messages to clarify previously sent messages
What is needed, therefore, is a system that allows the sender of the messages to reprioritize or reorder unopened messages that are stored in the recipient's mailbox.